.alpha.-Phenylethyl alcohol is useful as a starting material for styrene and is well known to be obtainable by hydrogenation of acetophenone. For example, JP-B-59-27216 discloses a process in which acetophenone is hydrogenated using a copper-chromite catalyst containing barium, magnesium and zinc.
Conventional processes using a copper-chromite catalyst, however, involve the following problems: the hydrogenation catalyst is poor in safety and hygienic properties in handling because of its high chromium oxide content and has a low activity, and the amount of ethylbenzene produced as a by-product is large, resulting in a low selectivity for .alpha.-phenylethyl alcohol.
In view of such conditions, the present inventors earnestly investigated a process for producing .alpha.-phenylethyl alcohol which is free from the above problems, and consequently found that .alpha.-phenylethyl alcohol can be produced with high selectivity by inhibiting the production of ethylbenzene as a by-product by the use of a copper-based catalyst containing an alkali metal compound and/or an alkaline earth metal carbonate which hardly involves safety and hygienic problems.